Snow Blind

Last year when I put a computer together for TJ to use, I just used some spare parts laying around and a decent computer I had received. In fact, the only purchased part was a wireless PCI nic so it could get on the internet without me running copper. One of those pieces was a 14″ Gateway monitor that I had gotten from a tech support call center I worked at back in the day. It worked and was sufficient for the amount he was using it. For the few times I’ve tried to show him something, I keep realizing just how inferior it is to have any computer that can’t display at least a resolution of 1280 x 1024, but with the 14″ screen, we were limited to 1024 x 768. I bothered me to no end. So I trolled on the local LUG mailing list about a new monitor. I knew I would be able to get something. Found one. I got a free 17″ Dell from one of my coworkers, actually.

This is where linux is still falling short. Every time I keep thinking it’s getting to be “ready for primetime”, I run into an issue like this. I hook up the monitor and it works – but I am unable to change the resolution to anything higher than the restriction I had with the 14″ monitor. Since I’m waiting for the day when I can honestly make a good argument that desktop linux is feasible, I try and do as much as I can through the means that an average user would. I could go in and edit the X11.conf file, but 1. an average user would be put off by doing that and rightly so cause 2. editing that file sucks ass. So I look though all the settings that ubuntu provides ( I have the edubuntu variant installed ), but I’m unable to find any way of reconfiguring the monitor or changing the config in any way.

Here comes the good news. Since the linux and open source community is such a powerful resource, it didn’t take me long to find what I needed. But again, it wasn’t a solution the average user would want to use. I ended up running the sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and go through the setup in the terminal window I had open. This wasn’t the smoothest process in the world either since it took me through an entire xorg config which included redoing the config for the video card, mouse and keyboard all before I even got to the monitor section. Fortunately, the defaults were all fine and it was a click-next-fest. That is, of course, until I got to the monitor options. It correctly picked up the monitor, but for some reason, couldn’t determine the screen resolutions that were compatible. So I looked up to make sure it supported 1280 x 1024, and clicked the setting. Configuration done. I could have tested out to see if the new resolution was available, but I’m used to restarting services. I ended up pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart the xserver before I even thought much about it. When the login screen popped up again, I was pleasantly surprised to see it defaulted to the highest resolution available, so I didn’t even have to go back in and change it. So, I got it to work, and everything was fine and I have to say situations are improving, but these aren’t steps you can expect a normal user to have to try and fumble through.

Someday I will be able to say it’s ready, but that day isn’t today.

My newest niece was born this morning.

Congratulations to Casey and Mary!!

Last week Full Tilt introduced rebuy tournaments. This has been one of the top 3 features that a lot of the frequent have been waiting for. Re sizable tables is probably number one. They ran rebuys on a fairly regular basis for 2 days, then on Friday evening around 11pm EST, the whole site crashed and was down for several hours, I gave up checking around 3 AM, but it was back up in time for the tourney I was registering for the next morning with an update. Since then, I haven’t seen a single rebuy tourney other than the FTOPS tourneys that are scheduled for a much later date. Coincidence? Probably not. Seems to me there was some sort of big issue, but I haven’t heard anything as of yet. If any one else heard anything, I would be eager to know.

Al Gore wants us to think that there is global warming, but he can come tell that to my receding testicles.

I did actually see An Inconvenient Truth a little over a month ago when we were having the warmest December I can ever remember. I am one of those people who have really been getting into documentaries just because many times, truth is stranger than fiction (see Crumb for proof on that one). This was just another one sided movie to spread some one’s, read Gore’s, agenda. It was well put together for a documentary though and had some interesting facts. I don’t regret watching it and, in many respects, liked the movie. I wouldn’t, however, recommend this movie to anyone and everyone.

Comedy Central is the biggest sellout in the history of sellouts. I honestly don’t mind the whole Demetri Martin special sponsored by Vista. Occasionally, it’s nice to not have real commercial breaks, but seriously, did they buy the whole prime time slot of programming? Fine, have Bill Gates on the Daily Show. I’m a big fan. I like to see Jon Stewart stick to shady characters with his whit and humor as much as any one (well, maybe not as much as my wife). But the whole show played out and seemed like an infomercial. They may as well have replaced Mr. Stewart with Tony Little or that other really loud guy on the oxyclean commercials. It was almost sickening how it was played up for him. Maybe I’m a little biased (which I am), but it really seemed very soft and disappointing. Wag of the finger, Comedy Central. Selling out isn’t funny, it’s just sad.

A few people have recommended the Firebug Firefox extension for web development including Asa Dotzler (yes that Asa Dotzler). I downloaded it tonight and installed it to try it out. I’ve become accustomed to using the DOM Inspector that has been built in Firefox and Mozilla forever, well at least since I’ve used them. Between that and venkman, it was the best web development environment available. It may be hard to break my attachment but so far, it looks like a very clean and powerful tool. My first chore is trying to figure out the issue with the little card converter plugin for wordpress on the Mac in Firefox.